When a manufacturer determines that a product is defective, the manufacturer may issue an alert (e.g., a recall notice, field correction, repair instructions, etc.) to notify customers to stop using the product, return the product, etc. Issuing an alert is costly to a manufacturer because an alerted product may need to be replaced or fully refunded, but it often limits liability for a manufacturer and prevents further damage to the manufacturer's corporate image. A product alert is not, however, easy to learn about because, for example, a manufacturer may not always publicize an alert. A manufacturer may merely notify a government agency, and it is often a consumer group that publicizes an alert that the group learns from the agency. Further, a customer may have hundreds or thousands of products to search for alerts on.
The current process used by many organizations to obtain and manage product alerts (e.g., product recalls and bulletins) is thus seriously flawed. There may be multiple alert sources and formats and diverse methods of alert distribution to the organizations. The process may rely on poorly functioning paper-based systems. Critical alerts may often be mishandled or lost. Weeks may pass before recalled products may be discarded. Timely information regarding the status of the alerts may not be available.
The problems with the business process of alert management fall into three general areas: organization, infrastructure, and process. Organizationally, alert management may often be performed by individual departments in an organization. For example, a hospital may expect each department (medical devices, food service, pharmacy, etc.) to process recalls for relevant products. There may be no overall coordination and responsibility for alert management and no assurance that all departments are covered. The infrastructure may tend to consist of manual mechanisms, such as receiving recall notices by mail. The manual mechanism may not support efficient workflow or timely, comprehensive reporting. The process may be fragmented and inconsistent across the organization. Determining accountability may often be difficult, and there may not be an easy way to ensure appropriate actions have been taken. Many recalls may be missed or may be implemented too slowly.
The problems also extend to the process of returning recalled products and receiving refunds, reimbursements, and/or replacements from the vendor for the recalls. There may be no infrastructure or process for associating recalls with purchase or inventory data of recalled products that are currently in stock, and associating recalls with refunds, reimbursements, and/or replacements that are due from the vendor. Thus, it has been difficult to efficiently manage a returns process of recalled products and track whether refunds, reimbursements, and/or replacements have been received for a particular recalled product or recall.